Parks, Public Utilities & Technology Committee 42424

It is April 24th, 2024, and the meeting of the Parks, Public Utilities, and Technology Committee will come to order.

It is 2.05 p.m.

I'm Joy Hollingsworth, chair of the committee.

Will the clerk please call the roll?

Councilmember Kettle?

Here.

Councilmember Rivera?

Councilmember Strauss?

Present.

Council President Nelson?

Present.

four council members are present.

Thank you.

We only have one item on the agenda today.

It's our parks department open space plan.

Once this is approved by council, the plan gets submitted to the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office.

And the plan is effectively a menu of projects for parks.

And they will explain all of that and walk us through.

So we're looking forward to having our parks department and talk about all of the parks and open space plan.

We will now consider the agenda and if there are no objections, the agenda will be adopted.

Hearing none, the agenda is adopted.

We will now go to the hybrid public comment and public comments should relate to items on today's agenda or be within the purview of the committee.

Clerk, how many speakers do we have signed up today?

We have one in-person speaker.

Awesome, okay.

Each speaker will have two minutes.

Clerk, please read the instructions for public comment.

The public comment period will be moderated in the following manner.

I will call on speakers by name in the order in which they are registered, both on the council's website or from the sign-up sheet available here in council chambers.

We will start with in-person speakers first.

If you have not registered to speak but would like to, you can sign up before the end of the public comment period.

Just go to the council's website or by signing up on the sign-up sheet near the public comment microphone.

The online link is listed on today's agenda.

when speaking please begin by stating your name and the item you are addressing speakers will hear a chime when 10 seconds are left on the allotted time if speakers do not end their comments at the end of the allotted time provided the speaker's microphone will be muted to allow us to call on the next person the public comment period is now open and we will begin with the first speaker on the list the first speaker is alex zimmerman

Ze Heil, my dirty damn Nazi fascist junta, a bandit and killer.

My name Alex Zimmerman, I'm president of Stand Up America.

Thank you very much, so you give me two minutes.

It's very unusual.

I very appreciate it.

Yeah, I want to speak about PARC.

For many years, dozen time I speak, we need stop and spend million and million dollars for PARC.

Because three waters we have right now in Seattle.

For 40 years, what is under my eyes, you know, can stay in for another couple hundred years.

And exactly right now, and because we spend too much money, a million and million dollars for a park for a long time, you know what this means?

I want to make a little bit correction right now.

I think superior court make decision right now.

So homeless people who sleep in city property can be arrested right now, trespassing, pay like a $1,500, can go in jail for 30 days.

So my question right now very simple, guys.

Yuga is very good, you know what it means, because people sometimes can't sleep in park.

I think it's normal in civilized city, you know what it means.

No problemo.

So 10 years ago, for example, is approximately 250 people dying every year, homelessness, because they don't have place where they can sleep, you know what it means, in housing.

Or in another property.

So right now, we come to 450 people.

For 10 years, you double everything.

You double rent.

You double killing people.

You double everything.

You're so good.

I like you.

You know what I mean?

But please, stop spending a million dollars for parks.

Better spend this million dollars for...

Give them something.

Give them room.

You know what this mean?

Six square feet enough for sleep very good.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

So point of order, Mr. Zimmerman, and I will say this every single time you say that.

Abusive language, I think saying the Nazi salute is I'm offended by that.

And so it's abusive behavior every time you come and say that every single time.

And you can continue to walk out like you do and not listen.

And that's fine.

Thank you.

Okay, so will the clerk please read agenda item one into the record.

Agenda item one, resolution 32135, a resolution adopting the Seattle Parks and Recreation 2024 Parks Development Plan, authorizing the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation to submit the plan to Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office, superseding the 2018 Parks Development Plan.

For briefing, discussion, and vote, The presenters are Christopher Williams and Kevin Bergsrund from Parks and Recreation and Tracy Ratzliff from Council Central staff.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

And I definitely during this time also want to give a special thank you to Paula Hoff for her service as she was our council liaison and welcome Jacob Thorpe, who's our new council liaison for our Seattle Parks Department.

And our parks department's gonna give a presentation about the open space plan where they're also gonna discuss the process about this.

I had a number of council members ask about projects that they're very passionate about and they would like to help have input and so forth.

And I would love for you all to explain the process so they can feel comfortable about the next steps for this to move along and what that looks like.

So I want to apologize to my colleagues about not being clear about that as I was learning and understanding that, but I know we have our Parks Department here and our central staff who will also explain that.

So without further ado, Mr. Christopher Williams.

Awesome.

Thank you so much, Councilmember.

I'm Christopher Williams, Chief of Staff, Seattle Parks.

Uh, Kevin Verchardt, senior park planner.

And Tracy Ratz of council center staff.

Awesome, so maybe I'll kick this off here.

Uh, thank you for considering the city council resolution to approve the 2024 park and open space plan, and based on council member Hollingsworth's introduction, maybe I'll provide a little bit more background on the purpose, uh, for why we're here to seek a resolution.

So we're going to share some information with you today about projects that we are looking at for future grants, but that really isn't the purpose for today's meeting.

The purpose for the meeting is to seek authorization to apply for these grants to the state.

And maybe I'll deviate from my original remarks and talk about how we assess whether projects are eligible for RCO grants.

Capital projects are developed in our department as part of an asset management plan to identify and rank necessary major maintenance projects based on specific asset classes.

For example, roofs, athletic fields, play areas, sports courts, Projects are further identified through ongoing condition assessments, consultant studies.

There's quite a vetting process to determine which projects make it on the list.

Some of those vetting include several examples that range from, you know, is there a code requirement that the department is attempting to live up to?

Is it a life safety issue?

Is the building envelope or facility integrity an important part of why this project is being proposed?

Does it create an operating efficiency?

Sometimes older buildings and older facilities cost more to operate.

Equity is a key consideration.

Timing, for example, is the project we're proposing funded?

You know, one of the things, you know, they're all kind of good ideas, but unless the project is funded, it can't be eligible for a match.

So sequencing funded projects is really important.

you know, lots of staff are involved in that process as well as the community to identify projects.

So I kind of wanted to unpack some of that with you and getting back to the fact that we were here maybe a month ago to seek, rather to provide you with a presentation.

And the purpose of that presentation is to, you know, Get City Council authorization to apply for grants through the recreation conservation office Councilmember Hollingsworth at our last meeting raised a question and pointed out that Seattle is increasingly a dense city and We have very dense neighborhoods, and we'd like to respond to that, that as you know, property in Seattle is very expensive, and we have a limited budget for land acquisition.

One of our approaches with acquisitions has been to expand and leverage land that we or other city departments already own to make park and green spaces larger.

A recent example of this strategy is the purchase of several parcels of new park land in the North Rainier neighborhood in Southeast Seattle.

There's also an example in the West Seattle Highland area near Westwood Village and Highland Park.

This is an example where we have combined adjacent property that we acquired from SDOT to really pair up with some city-owned property to create a larger public park and green space.

Another strategy is to maximize and increase public access to existing park and natural areas Examples include resurfacing athletic fields with synthetic turf to increase the use of athletic fields and creating a mountain bike trail in the TC green space.

Finally, I wanted to acknowledge that we heard you loud and clear the last time we were here.

From council members, you requested several future briefings And I wanted to let you know that we are now scheduled to brief the committee on trees on May 8th.

So we will come back on May 8th with a briefing on our trees and green belts.

And then following that, we will come back for an athletic field scheduling, maintenance, and operations briefing.

That will occur on May 22nd.

So thank you for those great suggestions.

Just wanted to let you know that we are following up on those requests.

And with that, I will hand it over to the very capable Kevin Burke's route.

Thank you, Christopher.

So very few slides here and we'll go through them.

Uh, as you heard from Christopher parks, recreate parks and open space plan, or in some communities, it's known as a parks and recreation and open space plan or pros.

We've parked departments throughout the state.

They develop these approximately every six years, and the purpose, as Christopher also said, is allow the departments to have eligibility to apply for Recreation and Conservation Office grants, which there are many grants managed by RCO, and I'm trying to think of some of the acronyms, but there are many of those.

And so RCO also has a planning guidelines that lays out precisely what each park department should be doing to prepare a plan and submit a plan.

And so, as you can see on this slide, the park and open space plan objectives are that we conduct an inventory and analysis that describes existing parks, open spaces, and our facilities, which range from pools to community centers.

We also review changes in the demographics in the city.

And then really important is recreation participation that we can get that information from RCO and other state agencies.

We also look at some national stats and then we try and figure out projected demand within these recreation activities.

The other part that we also work on is primarily, well, in past years or past plans, was defining a level of service standard.

And so decades ago, a lot of park departments would base that on acres per, number of park acres per thousand population.

And while that worked fairly well, it also kind of left things out a little bit.

And so because we're, It's tight for land.

We can't continually purchase property in order to meet the number of park acres as the population has grown significantly.

So this plan is looking at GIS mapping and then the level of service standard is actually the distance one would take to walk from a park outwards.

So in a sense, it's measuring a 10-minute walk distance, the areas that are within 10 minutes to a park.

And that is important because that will be used in the park element in the city's soon to be completed comprehensive plan.

So along with that, just saying that that will be implemented or incorporated in the city's comprehensive plan, that means that we do work with OPCD, coordinate with SDOT and to a degree coordinate with Seattle Public Utilities.

And as Christopher covered, it defines our near-term capital spending priorities.

So the Park and Open Space Plan approach, at least this time around, it's a light update.

And to explain that a little bit better is that the Park and Open Space Plan, the six-year, planning window for us was end of August 2023. And while that doesn't mean so much, what it does mean is that it wasn't synced with the part of the Municipal Park District planning process for identifying future projects.

So what we're looking at is that with this plan, in about two years from now, Saddle Parks will come back and initiate another planning process for a more robust park and open space plan.

But for at least for this project or at least this plan, what we did was that we coordinated with OPCD in late 2022 and early 2023 on public meetings and also got out that information that we were preparing the park and open space plan and took public comment.

We also held about a half dozen in-person meetings at various community centers in May, June and July of 2023. And we also had a survey open and an online engagement hub open so that people could submit comments.

And then by the end of this year, when we had the draft ready, there was also a Board of Park and Recreation Commissioners hearing, and people were allowed to or could submit comments at that time.

And as a matter of fact, we had more than 100 comments come in, although majority of those were addressed towards people's support for public golf courses, particularly Jackson Park Golf Course in relationship to the two link light rail stations.

Some people stated that they'd like to see the golf course use change or in some cases eliminated for housing.

So this list here shows the recent RCO grant applications that we've made.

We have a very good grant administrator or grant manager at Parks.

His name is Moshe Hecht, and he also has support, and they're really on top of things for getting the grants prepared and submitted, attending presentation meetings with RCO, and then also managing the grants once we get them.

So what you can see here is there are approximately a little more than half a dozen projects, and it's showing what type of work that we're proposing for that capital asset, the program that's part of RCO, and like I said, there's a number of them.

And so the third one down, that one I do know for sure, that's the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is an important one because it, Granted one and a half million for the Rainier Beach skate park So I'll move on to the next one here and the potential applications that we have in line for RCO grants this year As Christopher said we'll be returning later to the council to talk about and present those applications The projects that we're looking at are Hutchinson Park in southeast Seattle, Dr. Jose Rizal Park, a playground, and other amenities renovation, which is on Beacon Hill, Smith Cove, which is in the Magnolia neighborhood, Lake City Floodplain Park, which is just west of the main part of Lake City, Walt Hundley Playfield, and then Herring's House Park, which is along the Duwamish.

So the next steps, of course, we're here today on presenting to the committee for a possible vote and then a full council vote by April 30th.

And then what we're looking for is we have a deadline to submit the approved plan to RCO by or before May 15th.

And so if any questions, myself or Christopher, we'd be glad to answer those.

Thank you so much.

I know that we have our council staff here as well, central staff, my apologies, central staff here to help us clarify the questions.

And I know some of my colleagues have questions as well about the process and what this looks like and wanna turn to anyone if they have questions.

Council Member Kettle.

Thank you, Chair Hollingsworth.

And yes, based on our conversation, I'm caught up and I, we're on the same page.

And so thank you for the discussion.

I appreciate it.

And thank you for the presentation, the earlier brief and the points that you just made earlier about trees and the green belts, which I can't hesitate to, you know, make a point about again.

I UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS, AND SO I'VE REVIEWED THE APPENDICES AND THE ONES THAT ARE ON.

I RECOGNIZE ALL THOSE, THE CURRENT PROJECTS.

SO THANK YOU FOR THOSE.

THOSE ARE ALL VERY IMPORTANT.

AND AS WE MOVE FORWARD, It's engaging on the issues.

Like, you made the example of doing property swaps.

It was in another location, but, you know, that's something that we need to do for Portal Park right now.

I've engaged the Indigenous Advisory Council on this, too, to engage them at the beginning of this process, and I think it's a great thing.

And I've had discussions with SDOT and City Light and understand...

It's the mayor's office that actually needs to start that process.

And also engaging on South Lake Union.

That community has been kind of focused on land use, but I just want to give you a heads up.

They're very organized and very smart and very well, you know, organized.

And now they're turning their focus to parks.

And I see the one regarding South Lake Union.

And there's been some additional...

Speaking of the Indigenous Advisory Council, there's the Duwamish...

the canoe carving spot, so I'd like to follow up with you on that at some point in the near future.

But yeah, stand by for South Lake Union, because it's a very organized neighborhood, and they've got three parks, and they care about all of them, and they're gonna be engaged.

And I understand based on the appendices too that the off-leash areas, and I know the East, the Little Howe, the East Queen Anne play field was not selected, but that's part of the process with Big Howe, the West Queen Anne play field, and we have to have this kind of one-two.

And tied to this separately, and I'm not sure if this is really appreciated, is the David Rogers Park.

Because that might be a, because Little Howe was for little kids, and with half of it going to off-leash potentially, David Rogers might be an area where we can incorporate better the little kids and to have that kind of offset.

And the last thing I just wanted to say, too, regarding, like, District 7, you know, some things are not, like, your stereotypical, and I don't think this has been engaged, but, for example, like, it kind of has a public safety aspect to it.

Cary Park has had a lot of troubles.

And there's maybe things that we can design with Cary Park, you know, in terms of racing on the street, but going in there and, you know, being at the park at 2 a.m.

and those kinds of pieces that maybe from a design point of view, we can help out the neighbors in terms of the Cary Park, particularly when it's midnight, 1, 2 a.m., and those kind of issues that we have.

And I noted you said about the golf course, too.

I just wanted to know, particularly with the comp plan, so this is like a two-for-one for me, is Inner Bay...

I have a map in my office that shows in 1891, a lot of water.

This is not a place to be building, except for the Dravis area, because in an event of an earthquake, the liquefaction zone, earthquake, tsunami combination.

And so Interbay is actually a good place for a golf course.

So I just wanna put that out there right now.

And it has one.

Thank you, Chair.

Are there other questions, colleagues?

Chairman, I'll riff off this for a minute.

It was my understanding that where the Interbay Golf Course is today, I know it used to be a dump, but there was at one point a discussion of making it a small airport.

Here we are.

Thank you very much for coming to the committee twice and briefing us on this.

It's my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong here, this doesn't prohibit us from doing anything in the future within our own park system.

So let's say next year I decided I wanted a children's playground with Ballard Commons Park.

This, because it's not on this plan, I'm not prohibited from doing that.

Is that right?

Right.

This is, in a sense, us preparing a document for the state to comply with state guidelines to access their funds.

Is that essentially it?

You should be sitting over here.

I have to say, only because I sit on Association of Washington Cities is why I have this level of information.

It's not so different than actually the other day in Council Member Wu's committee where we were talking about the conservation targets that are a statewide initiative.

And so for me, because this doesn't limit us, this just expands us, I'm really comfortable with this.

And I will also editorialize that you included my three favorite words, Smith Cove Park.

Colleagues, I still have the ribbon cutting.

I second that.

I still have the photo of the ribbon cutting so many years ago.

And I don't know how you do it, Christopher, but you look younger today than you did 10 years ago.

Thank you.

Yes.

Chair, that's all I got.

I just want to add, that's melanin, Council Member Strauss.

I'm just playing.

Are there any other questions?

No.

Thank you all for your presentation and information, and I'm glad that Council Member Strauss clarified that.

This is compliance, because I know that a lot of council members, when they saw this, were like, well, we you know, there's some plans that we have and I want to reiterate that.

And I hope you all will confirm that, that you all will work with us when we are advocating for different projects and, you know, identifying those and seeing if, you know, Parks Department can, you know, elevate those for us.

One thing I do want to make sure that we have note of is is the amount and we had gotten some emails from parents and I talked to some folks too, but just being aware of like ensuring that some of the projects that we could potentially be doing and identifying And I don't know if this is the park's open space plan or this falls under something else, but us ensuring that our softball fields are turfed just as much as our baseball fields.

And the Garfield girls, they get rained out 30% more than our boys.

and ensuring that there's that equity lens for both.

And you all know a softball field, you can play little league, you can do, the older people play on that field as well.

It's revenue generating, especially if it's lit, like there's so many different things.

So just, I just wanted to put that out there.

I know you all have that in the back of your mind, but just wanted to bring it to the front and in the future.

So thank you all so much.

Are there any other questions at all?

All right, council members, I now move that the committee recommends passage of the resolution 32135. And do I have a second?

Second.

It has been moved and seconded to recommend passage of resolution.

Are there any other comments?

Easy, all right.

Will the clerk please call the roll to the committee recommendation to city council to pass the resolution.

Council Member Strauss.

Yes.

Council Member Kettle.

Aye.

Council President Nelson.

Aye.

Chair Hollingsworth.

Aye.

I almost said yes.

I'm sorry.

Oh, go ahead.

Four in favor, none opposed.

Thank you.

The motion carries.

The committee recommendation resolution will pass and be sent to full council April 30th, 2024 meeting.

Thank you, everyone.

With that, there's no other item on the agenda today.

Do any of my colleagues have any more items of business?

Y'all are too easy today.

Thank you.

All right, seeing none, this concludes our April 24th, 2024 meeting of Parks, Public Utilities, and Technology.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, May 8th at 2 p.m.

If there's no further business, this meeting is adjourned.

It is 2.33 p.m.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

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